You may have read the previous article about the trajectory of BMW (and indeed most automakers) and fell into pessimism. But don't be disheartened, all hope is not lost yet. Spectacular cars are still produced, which are designed in accordance with the traditional aesthetic rules and proportions, but at the same time stand out with their originality and benefit from all the technologies of today.

From my eyes, I would like to share with you a total of 10 current automotive wonders, one of which is out of circulation a short time ago, and the other one will go into mass production in a short time.

10... Peugeot 208

Coming from the pen of the brand's design director Gilles Vidal in 2019, this mischievous car manages to look both aggressive and cute, on the one hand, and retro and futuristic on the other. With the form of the C-pillar and rear windows, it also carries traces of its ancestor 205.

9... Cupra Formentor

A brand new company that has just emerged does not have the luxury of making mistakes in its first product. Drawn in 2020 by Alberto Torrecillas, who works under Alejandro Mesonero Romanos, the design director of Seat and its subsidiary Cupra, this "accessible Urus" undoubtedly hits the bullseye.

8... Genesis G80

The G80, created in 2020 by Belgian designer Luc Donckerwolke, who transferred to the Hyundai group after doing some great work in the Volkswagen group, is almost a Far Eastern Bentley – the only difference is that it is sold for one-fifth the price. There is this video by Jason Cammisa about its brother… Anyway, let's not give any spoilers.

7... Volvo S60

T. Jon Mayer was appointed director of exterior design for the brand last year, after sketching the S60/V60 in 2019. Just as at the end of the 90's, the BMW E39 created the visual outline of a high-end sedan; today, S60 performs a similar task. In fact, almost every work of the Swedish brand deserves to be included in this list.

6... Range Rover Sport

Likewise, I could list Land Rover's entire product range here. It is impossible to comprehend how this luxury SUV, which is the work of Lee Perry on the inside and the team of Gerry McGovern on the outside, with its almost 2.5 tons of heft and 2 meters of height, manages to look faster than most supercars but simpler than most family cars.

5... BMW i8

Yes; production of the i8 ended in 2020, but did you know that in the first half of this year, 5 new i8s were sold in the US alone? Designed by Richard Kim in 2011 and the mass-production version by Benoit Jacob in 2014, this one hasn't aged a day yet, as anyone who has recently seen the Bavarian Batmobile on the road would agree.

4... Hyundai Ioniq 5

Often the concept of a car is disappointing as it goes into mass production, but if you weren't aware of the 45 EVs on display in 2019, you could swear that the Ioniq 5 is the concept itself. Lee Ji Hyeon drew this hatchback of the future in 2021, which, although inspired by the '70s Pony, seems to have been produced to play the lead role in Cyberpunk 2077.

3... Honda e

It may not be so surprising that the Koreans, who take all kinds of risks to be taken seriously, can reveal the above; but no one could foresee the e released in 2020 by the Japanese, who are much more loyal to tradition. In fact, Honda itself was not very keen on producing this car: Kohei Hitomi, who was the head of the project, insistently wanted to create a tiny electric car in A-segment sizes, while senior officials of the brand thought that they should increase the range, that is, use larger batteries, and therefore make a larger car. The bosses may have been right about the range, but our eyes are grateful to Hitomi and her team.

2... Tesla Roadster

Before the MkII Roadster was introduced, if you were told about a 4-seater electric car that accelerates to 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds, reaches 410 km/h, and has a range of 1000 km, you would probably imagine a very different figure from the one above. Although I think that the numbers suggested by Elon Musk for the 2023 Roadster, which is designed by Franz von Holzhausen, are still far from realism; how can the resulting work be so ambitious yet so unpretentious, so complicated yet so simple, so artificial yet so sexy?

1... Bugatti Mistral

Folks among us who are over 30 today, including Achim Anscheidt, grew up cutting pictures of certain cars out of magazines or buying posters of them and hanging them on our walls in our childhood. The scene that we see every time we get out of bed, the first time we open our eyes, both ignited our passions and pushed us to work harder and embrace the future in hopes of "maybe one day". I don't know about you, but I haven't encountered a car that has made me relive these feelings for many years – until...